Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field eBook

One man is endeavoring to construct a machine that
will pick cotton from the stalks, and is confident
he will succeed. Should he do so, his patent
will be of the greatest value. Owners of plantations
have recently offered a present of ten thousand dollars
to the first patentee of a successful machine of this
character.

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS PECULIARITIES.

Length of the Great River, and the Area it Drains.—­How
Itasca Lake obtained its Name.—­The Bends
of the Mississippi.—­Curious Effect upon
Titles to Real Estate.—­A Story of Napoleon.—­A
Steamboat Thirty-five Years under Water.—­The
Current and its Variations.—­Navigating Cotton
and Corn Fields.—­Reminiscences of the Islands.

As railways are to the East, so are the rivers to
the West. The Mississippi, with its tributaries,
drains an immense region, traversed in all directions
by steamboats. From the Gulf of Mexico one can
travel, by water to the Rocky Mountains, or to the
Alleghanies, at pleasure. It is estimated there
are twenty thousand miles of navigable streams which
find an outlet past the city of New Orleans. The
Mississippi Valley contains nearly a million and a
quarter square miles, and is one of the most fertile
regions on the globe.

To a person born and reared in the East, the Mississippi
presents many striking features. Above its junction
with the Missouri, its water is clear and its banks
are broken and picturesque. After it joins the
Missouri the scene changes. The latter stream
is of a chocolate hue, and its current is very rapid.
All its characteristics are imparted to the combined
stream. The Mississippi becomes a rapid, tortuous,
seething torrent. It loses its blue, transparent
water, and takes the complexion of the Missouri.
Thus “it goes unvexed to the sea.”

There is a story concerning the origin of the name
given to the source of the Mississippi, which I do
not remember to have seen in print. A certain
lake, which had long been considered the head of the
Great River, was ascertained by an exploring party
to have no claim to that honor. A new and smaller
lake was discovered, in which the Mississippi took
its rise. The explorers wished to give it an appropriate
name. An old voyageur suggested that they
make a name, by coining a word.

“Will some of you learned ones tell me,”
said he, “what is the Latin word for true?”

“Veritas,” was the response.

“Well, now, what is the Latin for head”

“Caput, of course.”

“Now,” suggested the voyageur,
“write the two words together, by syllables.”

A strip of birch bark was the tablet on which “ver-i-tas-ca-put”
was traced.

“Read it out,” was his next request.

The five syllables were read.

“Now, drop the first and last syllables, and
you have a name for this lake.”